A Note from John - Nick's Brother-in-law

Hello All,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for Nicky. Although today turned out to be the most HORRIFYING day of my life, I would like to thank all of you for the strength and support for helping me, Dawn and Loretta get through this day as best as we could.

I want to also thank the pole bearers as well for their support. Although I have known Nicky for about 13 years, I am glad that most of you have known him for many more years.

His absence will be the hardest thing for all of us to deal with, especially for the children in his family. One thing was for certain - they all love him so dearly.

After dinner at the Coastline, me and Christina went back to the cemetery to see him again. We sat there and just tried to figure out why this had to happen. It seems that I will have to go on in life in search for this one particular answer. Either way, this is what we now have to deal with. Luckily I have every one of you to help me and my family try to understand and carry on.

Thanks again to all of you.

Brother-in-law John Ingrassia

A Note from One of Nick's Doctors

Here is a note from Dr. Ward - a member of the team that took care of Nick...

larry,

I didn't get your email until Sun evening and didn't want to write anything until I was updated from the weekend. Unfortunately,I did not get good news and so much happened so fast on Monday that I never got a chance to write.

I am very sorry for the loss of your special friend. Nick was a great guy and it was an honor to take care of him. Please let Mrs. Herber know that my thoughts and prayers are with her.

Sincerely,

Kris Ward

Back in ICU

Nick is back in ICU due to the fact that he has developed pneumonia and needs more intensive care to treat it.

He has also insisted on being intubated and sedated to help him breathe. The respirator wasn't giving him enough. Between the pneumonia and fluids that he is retaining - he has had a difficult time breathing lately.

One of his doctors contacted me to find out how they can contribute to this blog. I am so impressed by that and hope it is a real indication of the level of "care" he is getting at Hahnemann. With their jobs as demanding as they are - it is amazing that they are able to reach out like that.

Just to catch up a bit...

Nick has completed his cycle of chemotherapy and has been in the process of recovering from that. Last I heard his counts were actually doing pretty well. He started retaining fluids again over the last week and has subsequently developed pneumonia.

Next Step

So, Nick is checking in to Hahnemann hospital today for the treatment that
he was in need of before all this other stuff happened to him.

Looks like he will be there for 3 weeks or so.

He will be undergoing a cycle of chemo to get his white cells under control
and then receive stem-cells from his mom. If they need to after that he will
receive a t-cell infusion also from his mom.

He feels very comfortable with the team at Hahnemann and is in good spirits
about getting this done.

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Quick Note

We have been unable to get up and see Nick for a few days.

Colleen and our son Larry both have colds of some sort that we don't want to share with him - color us greedy.

Col has spoken to him on the phone a couple times and it sounds like he is getting up and around a bit more - walking the floor some. He is understanably a little upset about not being able to do more - but he is getting stronger each day.

She didn't keep him on the phone long as it seemed he was a bit tired from the therapy.

Will post more when we have more.

Out of CCU

Nick is out of CCU and back on the 9th floor - finally.

I found him sitting up with his legs off of the side of the bed when I
arrived at about 8:30 last night.

He is much more alert and seeming more like himself - though he has been
through a tough couple weeks, to say the least.

He seems to be getting stronger each day.

We watched some poker games on tv when we weren't trying to find the sports
scores - which we never did find.

He is eating some now which is good to see that feeding tube gone.

He was tired so we called it a night around 9:30. Hopefully, he got a good
nights sleep last night - the night before he couldn't sleep due to the
prednisone they gave him.

Most of the fluid build up seems to be gone - except for in his legs/feet -
I guess that will follow soon. He seems really thin now with that fluid
gone.

The updates from here on out will probably be less informative as he gets
better and better to face further treatment - hopefully - out in Seattle.

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Great Visit

I made it up to see Nick for a couple hours today. He was sitting up watching tv and using the suction tube to clear his own mouth. Unbelievable.

He gave me a bit of a start when he started talking - which I didn't know he was doing. Asked if I had gotten the boat out and how Colleen's dad was doing.

He gave me an account as to what he remembered which was an amazing amount of detail leading up to him going to CCU. He was a little confused as to where he was the whole time - which is more than understandable.

Larry drew him a picture of a jet in the sky - with executive jet on the side (his company) - and wrote him a little note on the back. He liked it and his Mom hung it up on the wall for him to see.

They are supposed to move him out of the critical care unit and back to the 9th floor tomorrow.

His Mom and sister were up there when I got there and Uncle John was heading up to see him when I got to the lobby on the way out.

Heading to the pool with the kids for the last hurrah of summer. Col may go see him later tonight.